1) Greetings, Seekers of Baseline Activation Knowledge!
Welcome, esteemed readers, to the enchanting world of the SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Baseline Activation Service —an extraordinary journey that transcends the ordinary realms of my project management experience of leading and overseeing over 20+ Baseline Activation Services. I invite you to embark on a spellbinding exploration that delves deep into the essence of Baseline Activation.
Within these hallowed pages, we shall unravel the intricacies of Baseline Activation—what it is, what it is not, and crucially, how it intertwines with the broader tapestry of project methodology. Drawing upon my extensive tenure as a custodian of Baseline Activation, I shall impart invaluable insights garnered from the trenches of real-world implementation.
And now, I shall tone down the Harry Potter style of writing and introduce you to the Table of Contents, so that you can browse based on the information you seek to find:
1) Introduction
2) Why did we / SAP create the Baseline Activation Service?
3) What is the Baseline Activation Service?
4) Baseline Activation - Key Elements, Artifacts and Components.
5) What the Baseline Activation Service is NOT.
6) How does it fit within the SAP Activate Methodology and what are the benefits?
7) How to maximize your chances of a successful Baseline Activation
2) Why did we create the Baseline Activation?
The Baseline Activation Service is designed as part of SAP’s desire to ensure that customers embarking on their SAP S/4HANA Cloud journey have the best possible start to accelerate first use and maximize their chances of success. The Baseline Activation aims to achieve this by providing:
- A predictable scope and duration for delivering a tangible outcome and first use when customers start their implementation journey.
- Early system interaction and understanding of SAP Best Practice processes in order to have more meaningful Fit-to-Standard workshop discussions.
- A solid project foundation that customers and partners can build upon in their next phases.
- A better understanding of the Cloud way of working by adhering to Standard and following Cloud Mindset principles.
- An initial layer of personalization by configuring a specific set of components and loading a pre-defined number of customer sample data items to increase engagement with systems.
3) What is the Baseline Activation Service?
The Baseline Activation Service is a “Fixed Scope” product-centric offering for SAP S/4HANA Cloud that is oriented around supporting core business processes for Finance, Procurement, and Sales. The Baseline Activation leverages product in-built efficiencies, best practices, and automations, as well as accelerators and the vast experience we’ve acquired with a standardized delivery approach in order to ensure a quick deployment cycle of fixed scope that is typically delivered within the timeframe of 4-6 weeks.
It is designed to closely resemble the cycle of a standard SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud implementation project where you:
1) Prepare your project and activities based on your scope. And make sure you get everyone on the same page in terms of the objectives, deliverables, milestones, and overall plan.
2) Explore the system by conducting workshops in order to familiarize yourself with the Best Practice processes and capture the configuration and data requirements that are part of the Baseline scope.
3) Realize the requirements gathered by configuring the system, loading the data, and testing that everything is working according to expected system behavior.
4) Deploy the configured scope and conduct a Solution Walkthrough to demonstrate what’s been done.
If you happen to think that this resembles your ACTIVATE project phases and how you should execute your Implementation project. Don’t worry, it’s just a coincidence. It is definitely not a well-orchestrated symphony between product and delivery that is built on continuous feedback channels and iterations.
You can view in more detail what’s included in the Baseline Activation’s scope by checking the Baseline Activation Service for SAP S/4HANA Cloud in the SAP Store.
However, if you’re looking for a very quick snapshot of what is being configured and loaded in your system as part of this offering, then look no further than the screenshot below:
From my experience, having such fixed scope that does not allow deviations, due to the fixed nature of the offering, enables a highly focused deployment cycle that really illustrates and promotes the speed of delivery of SAP S/4HANA Cloud when adhering to the Methodology and Scope. Customers and Partners can then build upon that foundation by expanding with any additional functional, geographical, technical, or data requirements in order to fulfill the delta between the scope of the Baseline Activation Service and the full scope of the project that is necessary to reach a meaningful and operational point of Go-Live.
4) Baseline Activation – Key Elements, Artifacts and Components
Now that you hopefully have a better grasp of why the Baseline Activation exists and what it is. I would like to make things even more tangible by discussing some of the key activities and deliverables that form the essence of the Baseline Activation.
The Functional Review Workshops are an integral part of the delivery of the Baseline Activation. They are oriented around delivering a good understanding and overview of the SAP Best Practices for the Order-to-Cash, Procure-to-Pay, and Record-to-Report processes that form the scope of the Baseline Activation. They ensure early system interaction and engagement with the Best Practice Processes since they are delivered promptly upon initiating the service. The Functional Review workshops are tailored around exploring the functionality, key transactions, and processes within the system and are designed to equip you with an essential understanding of the Best Practice Processes and enable you to have more fruitful and productive Fit-to-Standard workshops (or in some case eliminate the necessity of further workshops on certain scope items, assuming there is full acceptance of the standard out-of-the-box processes presented in the Baseline).
The configuration and data files (also known as the Baseline Cookbooks) are standard configuration and data templates for Org. Structure, Primary Finance settings that are tailored to capture some of the most essential configuration values that are foundational to your system and not changeable once confirmed and deployed (such as your organizational structure, group currency, fiscal year variant, accounting principle, etc…), as well as some sample data requirements based on the scope of the service. Those are discussed during the workshop in order to ensure all the information is filled out correctly in order to help you dodge the system re-provisioning bullets.
The Baseline Solution Walkthrough Workshop is the final deliverable and serves as the demonstration and output of the functional review workshops and the completion of the Baseline cookbooks. The Solution Walkthrough is a playback “show and tell” type of workshop that is delivered in the Test System of your landscape and aims to showcase end-to-end processes based on the Baseline scope within a system that now reflects some of your own configuration values, as well as some of your own data that has been compiled throughout the process. This is the final deliverable after which all systems are handed over to the customer and partner for the remaining work of their service.
5) What the Baseline Activation Service Is NOT
To make the most out of the value provided by Baseline Activation, it is important to know what to expect and what not to expect from the delivery of the offering. Here I want to debunk some of the myths, misconceptions, or misinterpretations of what I’ve seen people mistake the Baseline Activation Service for. The Baseline Activation Service is not any of the following:
- Baseline Activation Service is not a replacement for specialized and tailored business and software deployment services that are traditionally offered by SAP or our ecosystem of Partners.
- Baseline Activation is not a service that maintains backlog, delta requirements, and gaps and then acts upon their resolution. Such activities and items should be addressed in the follow-on service owned by the SI and approached in the Explore phase of the project after the delivery of the Baseline.
- Baseline Activation is not a Quality Check or a Value Assurance type of offering that involves success checks at multiple stages of the project.
- Baseline Activation is not an “Upskilling”, “Enablement” or “On-demand support” offering by SAP for ad-hoc questions and topics Although a natural outcome is a better understanding of the standard Best Practice Processes across Finance, Procurement, and Sales LoBs.
- Baseline is not a substitute for having in-depth Fit-to-Standard workshops that review multi-country needs, configuration, data, authorizations, and integration requirements related to your end-to-end business processes.
6) How does it fit within SAP Activate Methodology and what are the benefits?
The Baseline Activation, as the name implies, is designed to provide a baseline foundation to start your project. That means that the value of the Baseline Activation is best derived when this starts in parallel with your project initiation and the “Prepare” phase of the Activate Methodology. This approach ensures that the fixed scope, predictability, and standardization of the Baseline Activation can be delivered while the overall planning and preparation for the remaining elements of the project are in progress (such as Integrations, Fit-to-Standard workshops on scope items outside of the Baseline Activation, analytics requirements, data, and others).
This way, upon the completion and sign-off of the Baseline Activation and upon entering the "Explore" phase of the project the outcome often entails the following benefits:
- A personalized system landscape (Dev and Test) based on the scope of the Baseline.
- Reduced project effort, due to the foundation laid upon from the Baseline Activation.
- Increased levels of engagement due to the quick personalization provided and improved ease of adoption.
- A Customer who is more educated on the Cloud Mindset and the SAP Best Practice Processes and is better equipped to have more meaningful Fit-to-Standard Workshops with the SI.
- An SI that has increased understanding and an early indication of areas or backlog items that may require more attention in the implementation (if such have already arisen during the Functional Review workshops)
- Good project momentum, due to the fast start of the Baseline Activation and its predictability, as well as an overall enhanced project experience.
7) How to maximize your chances of a successful Baseline Activation
Some of the principles for ensuring successful delivery and completion of the Baseline Activation Service within the desired timelines and the expected benefits are on the obvious end of the spectrum and entail things such as adhering to the scope of the Baseline, having a Cloud Mindset, engaging with the relevant material, tools, and methodology. However, as highlighted - these principles are standard for an SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Implementation and are not specific to the Baseline itself. The Baseline-specific lessons and guidelines that I've found to be particularly beneficial are as follows:
- Ensure prompt actioning of the initial System Activation emails that the assigned IT contact person from the customer side receives upon starting the license of your SAP S/4HANA Cloud. The Baseline Activation requires the provisioning and setup of the system landscape and therefore delays on this can result in delays of the delivery. More information on this can be found in the "Request Initial System Access" and in this detailed blog post referring to the most granular details of setting up your starter system
- Ensure timely completion of the Cookbook / Config & Data files that are designed to capture the information compiled as part of the Baseline. This includes the Org. Structure and Primary Finance settings, as well as some of the sample data required. This is of particular importance, as it stands on the critical path of provisioning and deploying content to your Development and Test systems.
- Ensure that your SI / Implementation Partner is present and attentive in the Functional Review workshops and the overall Baseline Activation delivery journey. This ensures good alignment from their side on the work that is being performed as part of the Baseline Activation. Otherwise, this may lead to discontinuation and failure to ensure smooth continuation from finishing the Baseline to going into the SI's Service and the next phase of the project.
- Avoid deviation from the Baseline Project project scope and focus your attention on understanding the information presented in order to maximize the value gained. Backlog items or any areas that may require more attention are best addressed in the "Explore" phase of your Activate Methodology.
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